This Week in Misinformation: Getting the facts on if the 6-foot social distancing rule was really 'made up'

From invisible chairs to the U.S deficit with China, there were plenty of points of mis- and disinformation this week. The National Investigative Unit helps us Get the Facts.Is that video of President Joe Biden fumbling to find his seat real? Biden and the first lady attended a ceremony in France on Thursday, marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day. A video from the event went viral on social media, with posts suggesting the president was searching for an invisible chair and trying to sit in something that wasn't there. These claims aren’t correct. The videos in the posts were edited. In the uncut video that you can watch here, you see Biden, first lady Jill Biden, the French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron all standing on the stage. There is a chair behind Biden and the others. The president bends and hovers a bit before sitting down in the chair.Are we really in the largest trade deficit with China right now? On a Fox News show, former President Donald Trump made comments about the trade deficit the U.S. has with China. “Right now, we have the largest deficit we've ever had with China, like over a trillion dollars," Trump said. Our partners at Factcheck.org say that is not correct. The total U.S. trade deficit with China in goods and services in 2023, was about $252 billion according to revised figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The deficit in goods trading was about $279 billion for the year, but that was partially offset by a roughly $27 billion surplus in the trading of services. The chart located here shows that the total deficit is actually the lowest it’s been since 2009.Was the 6-foot social distancing rule during the COVID-19 pandemic made up? Let’s start at the beginning of where this claim came from. Back in January, Dr. Anthony Fauci was interviewed by a House subcommittee about COVID-19 in a closed-door meeting. When portions of the transcript were released, media headlines falsely claimed that he “made up” the 6-foot social distancing guideline. When looking at the full transcript, Dr. Fauci doesn’t say that he made up the social distancing rules but instead says, “It sort of just appeared. I don't recall, like, a discussion of whether it should be 5 (feet) or 6 (feet) or whatever.” He later says the decision was empiric, which is a medical term meaning a determination based on observation and experiences rather than data. This week, Dr. Fauci gave testimony in front of a House Select Subcommittee. He again clarified his statements, reiterating, “I never said I made anything up.”